Beneath Auckland City’s modern veneer lie reminders of its earlier days. Intent on taking a trip back into local history, I saddle up and set out on a bicycling adventure through these moments in time – many having personal connections that evoke my own recollections of Auckland’s past. My journey’s starting point is at my western suburbs home in Henderson.
I cycle the Northwestern Cycleway running alongside the North-Western Motorway. I pass the greens of 1936-established Chamberlain Park Golf Course, and Western Springs where I’ve run, and fed ducks, geese and eels. A spring-fed lake, it provided water to Auckland from the 1870s to 1910, and its pumphouse is now part of the neighbouring Museum of Transport and Technology. Home of chugging engines, a replica colonial village, trains… I remember the ringing metal, heat and smell of the blacksmith’s forge on a live weekend.
A tram clangs out as I continue on to reach Upper Queen Street, which joins Queen Street, the country’s first asphalt street in 1902. The city’s main commercial thoroughfare, it heads down over 3km to the waterfront. Amidst its modern skyscrapers are tucked the iconic 1911 Town Hall and the 1929 Civic Theatre, its Indian-inspired interior complete with minarets, statues of panthers and elephants, and a midnight-blue, domed ceiling, lit like stars are twinkling within it.
I turn onto Karangahape Road, which has a self-guided walking tour of over 50 artworks… ‘Must do it one day,’ I think to myself as I ride past… I cycle to Symonds Street and onto Grafton Bridge, easy cycling now it’s closed to traffic except for buses and bikes. Opened in 1910, it was the world’s largest reinforced concrete single-span bridge.
I push my bike along the busy footpath outside Auckland Hospital to the lofty, yellowish-stone columns forming the 75-hectare Auckland Domain’s gates. An athletic bronze statue – modelled on sprinter Allan Elliot, a 1932 Olympic athlete – balances gracefully atop one.
Grand old trees line roads throughout the Domain, a haven from city noise. Water spurts up out of the willow tree-draped duck pond. Above the pond, the two, 1921-built, heritage-listed, arch-roofed glasshouses were a favourite destination in childhood. I should frequent more often, it’s been so easy to get here by bike, rather than driving traffic-clogged roads.
Known as the Wintergardens, humid and earthy, one glasshouse is a mass of orange, red and pink blooms, the other, green with tropical vegetation. Sparkling coins at the bottom of its central waterlily pond remind me of throwing one in decades ago. Scene of a family wedding, the courtyard with its statues, pond, and arbours was a favourite too. The fernery is like being in west Auckland’s Waitakere Ranges’ bush; I wander amongst ferns and descend from the circular path to feel tiny amongst towering trunks.
Auckland War Memorial Museum, within the Domain, looks over the harbour and central city, where the Sky Tower rises above city skyscrapers. Built in 1929, the three-storey building resembles a grand English stately home with Greek pillars. Displays include Maori taonga (treasures), and I’ve taken several visitors to its Maori Cultural Experience to witness the haka and Maori songs. Out front, the Cenotaph is the annual scene of April 24th ANZAC ceremonies at dawn.
A quiet street leads to Parnell, Auckland’s oldest suburb, where I pop into the Holy Trinity Cathedral to see the Southern Hemisphere’s largest stained glass window. Vibrantly coloured, it depicts Jesus Christ with ferns, Nikau palm, red pōhutukawa blossoms and Rangitoto in the background.
Grand 1900s homes dot Parnell’s streets amongst modern ones. At the blossoming Parnell Rose Garden, Auckland’s oldest pōhutukawa tree, around 200 years old, spreads weaving, wandering limbs.
Reaching Tamaki Drive, I ride its flat, waterfront cycleway. Past the 1914-built, open-air, saltwater Parnell Baths sitting at a cliff base opposite; past the 17 historic, green-doored boatsheds (original owners would be astounded by the prices they now fetch), clustering around a section of Hobson Bay. Moored launches reflect in its protected water. Toothpick-like masts on gleaming white yachts clutter Orākei Marina; the brown, quiet sandy Okahu Bay beach is shaded by old pōhutukawa, their blooming red flowers a spectacle around Christmas.
Pedalling on… Okahu Bay Wharf stretches 200m into Waitematā Harbour, part of the wider Hauraki Gulf. From wharf end, the coathanger-shaped Harbour Bridge connecting the CBD to the North Shore is visible. My mother walked it just before its official opening in 1959. Over the water, North Head rises at the end of Devonport peninsula. A defence site since the late 1800s, as a child it was fun exploring its echoing tunnels, underground rooms, cannons and disappearing guns. And views from it to the city and over Devonport and the harbour are pretty spectacular.
Rangitoto Channel separates North Head and the bush-covered, dormant volcano of Rangitoto rising from the sea; the wooden 1871 Bean Rock Lighthouse is a speck in the vast harbour. Fullers Ferry churns the water headed for Waiheke Island, home of 30 vineyards.
I arrive at Mission Bay after 5.5km of waterfront cycling. A popular weekend spot, mid-week there’s few sunbathers lounging on its sand. The 1947 marble fountain’s three brass sea monster statues spout water into the surrounding pool; it looks magical lit at night. Nearby, the mid-1800s, grey, stone Melanesian Mission House is all that remains of a larger Anglican Mission that educated Melanesian boys.
Numerous restaurants and cafés populate the adjacent roadside, but I prefer to eat a picnic lunch below the shade of a pōhutukawa, looking out over the sea. I do have a mint-chocolate ice-cream at Mövenpick’s… you have to when you go to Mission Bay!
Pedalling back along Tamaki Drive, I continue onto Quay Street, passing the early 1900s, orangey-mustard, brick Ferry Building at the bottom of Queen Street. Since 1904, ferries have departed from here servicing the upper harbour, North Shore’s Devonport, and some of the Hauraki Gulf’s 50 islands, including Rangitoto, Rotoroa, and Tiritiri Matangi – a wildlife sanctuary.
At Quay Street’s end, where trendy Viaduct Basin eateries begin and superyachts are moored, I grit my teeth cycling steep Nelson Street up to the bright pink Te Ara I Whiti (Lightpath). It leads to Upper Queen Street, and I rejoin the Northwestern Cycleway to complete my journey. It’s been an enjoyable day reacquainting myself with inner Auckland.
With e-bikes for hire in the city, you can check out the cycling and walking maps of Auckland at at.govt.nz/cycling-walking/cycling-walking-paths, and follow in my tyre tracks to make your own local memories!
